Head Over Heels
by BoxinShrimp
Summary: Ruby Rose had one job, release the souls of humans from their mortal coil by saying their name aloud. But when her first day goes completely awry and her target challenges her information on humanity, she decides to stay with him, perhaps forever. And matters only get worse when her equally supernatural family find out that their precious Rose has had her heart stolen by a human.
1. Dead On Arrival

Jaune Arc.

That was the name of her target. Her first ever target. Twenty years old, Caucasian of average height and build, blue eyes blonde hair. Lives alone on the second story of the apartment complex known as "Haven," room number C-10. Second middle child in a family of ten. Seven sisters, a mother and father. The young man had lived a completely boring and uneventful life, according to her briefing. It was rather unfortunate that he would not be able to live it fully after today.

Ruby took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds, exhaling as she slowly trotted along the sidewalk. Today was her very first day on the job. She wished she could have brought Zwei with her, but she was in a bustling city. A horse like him would stick out like a sore thumb, something that she was taught to avoid in this day and age.

"A Dullahan can't charge through the streets on their horse while cackling madness, anymore." That was what her mother had told her. "Humans today, they just don't believe in the supernatural anymore. And perhaps maybe that's for the best. After all, when they find out you are the one causing so much death, they might try something silly."

Such was the life of a Reaper class entity, the life she had chosen for herself. She felt her breath hitch as she came to a turn. Glancing up at the iron pole that was jammed into the sidewalk, she saw two small green signs placed up at the very top.

"Oniyuri street." She whispered to herself, hiking her red hood up to conceal her face as she turned down the path. She had brought along the hooded cloak that her mother had made for her as a good luck charm, and as a way of hiding her identity. Hopefully it would provide her with the courage she needed as she began to move closer and closer to her destination, where she would need to set the event in motion. She gulped nervously, her face heating up more and more with every step she took. She felt bad about doing this, but perhaps with time that feeling would fade.

"Humans? Nah, don't worry about them, sis. They're like any other animal, except smarter." The conversation she had with her sister just before she had left began to play back in her mind. "Sure, they might seem like nice people, but when you get right down to it, humans just care about themselves. They're only out for their own survival, and they don't care about anything that doesn't help them do that."

"But Yang, don't you and dad sleep with humans like, every night?" Ruby could feel her mouth curve into a wicked smirk. "If humans are like animals, does that mean you two are into bestiality?"

Yang froze up, her mouth opening and closing silently as her bat-like wings flapped defiantly, a clear giveaway that showed how flabbergasted she was. "N-no! Besides, we need to do that to get their life force!" Ruby watched as her older sister folded her hands across her chest and began to pout. "Not like everyone can just shout a guys name out and have him drop dead like you..."

Ruby's smile drooped ever so slightly. "Sorry, sis. I'm just really nervous, that's all." Her smile perked up again when her older sister placed a hand on her shoulder.

"You'll be fine. Just don't worry about the humans and just focus on getting the job done." Yang smiled as she pat Ruby's shoulder a few times.

Her hands wrapped around her hood, tugging it tightly around her head as she rounded a corner and continued to march on. Her eyes drifted to each person that passed her by, none of them being any the wiser on her true identity.

"Oh my little Ardaigh Dícheannta, it's okay to be nervous on your first day." The voice of her mother rang out in her head, replacing her sisters.

Ruby stamped her foot on the ground and gave off her angriest pout. "Mom! You know I hate that stupid nickname!"

Her mother placed a hand to her mouth in over-exaggerated shock. "You do?! But... but Yang and I spent weeks thinking it up! And it's so clever! It means-"

"I know what it means, mom!" She could feel her cheeks puffing out, as they usually did when she was angry. And she would have stayed that way, too, had she not felt the familiar sensation of her mothers hands clapping over each cheek, causing all the air to blow out her mouth. The two shared in a brief fit of giggles before Ruby's melancholy attitude returned. "...Do I really have to go today, mom?"

Her mother smiled, placing a hand on her head. "Sweetheart, this is what you wanted to do, remember?"

"I know but... I don't wanna hurt anyone..."

She could feel her mother frown. "Ruby, you know that humans are simple, corrupt creatures that only care about their own selfish desires."

"But... what about dad and Auntie Raven?" She felt her mothers fingers curl up, pulling her hair as they did.

"Your 'Auntie' Raven was a sick individual who tried to murder her only child, your sister, when she found out what she was." Her mother's hand relaxed, and Ruby did the same. "And it was for the better that we left her and your Uncle in the mortal world. They despised us after they found out what we were." Her mother's voice returned to its soft and sweet tone as quickly as it had left. But Ruby remained silent as she shut her eyes, remembering the day that they left the mortal world and moved to the spiritual one. "You may not understand now, but once you return to the mortal plane and see them firsthand, you will."

Ruby felt her mother's hand leave her head, causing her to spin her entire body around to face her. "Will you be here when I get back?" She asked, hopeful that the answer would be yes.

But her mother's frown suggested otherwise. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. But I'm being called in for a very important convention tomorrow, and it'll be a long time before I'm back." The disappointment on her daughters face was soul-crushing, and it was something that she tried to suffocate with a big hug. "But Dad and Yang will be here for you if you need anything at all."

"Okay..." Ruby responded, wiping a tear from her eye. She soon felt her mother place a finger underneath her chin, moving her face upwards to meet her own. As Ruby gazed into her mother's silver eyes, she felt warmth and comfort, like she always had. Mom's eyes were always so pretty.

"But when I get back, I promise I'll listen to every little detail about your own trip, alright?"

"...Alright..." Ruby whispered to herself as she came to a stop.

She raised her head and gazed out at the street in front of her, a rather quiet one that sat in front of the apartment complex known as Haven. It gave her a nice view of the buildings court yard, a humongous water fountain situated right in front of the building itself that overlooked the parking lot. It looked like a very comfy place to live, but she wouldn't ever be able to verify whether or not it really was herself. Her gaze shifted to her right, the sidewalk stretching on for a little bit longer before taking another turn down another street. He would be coming from that direction, walking across the street itself. All she had to do was say his name as he was crossing, and it would all be over.

She walked towards the street and stopped just before it, resting against the small tree that had been planted in its own little spot in front of what looked like was a row of apartments. As she glanced up at the structure, she briefly questioned why humans would build apartments right in front of a giant apartment complex before turning her attention back to the street. Now was not the time to get distracted, it would only be a few more minutes before he appeared. She needed to keep her eyes on the road, she needed to be a paragon of discipline and patience. She needed-

"Woof!"

Ruby glanced down at her feet, her eyes settling upon a small black and white dog, a corgi, that was returning her gaze. Only the dog was regarding her with intense hostility, its teeth bared. She blinked a few times before waving her hands at the small furry beast. "Shoo! Go away!"

She regretted her action almost immediately.

The dog flew into a barking frenzy as it charged forward, its mouth clamping down on her red cloak. And with a violent jerking motion, it pulled back in an attempt to rip the clothing off of her. With a small shriek, Ruby clasped the fabric in her hands and pulled in the opposite direction, trying her best to save the precious article of clothing from such a cruel mutt. But every time she increased her vigorous tugging, the dog would match it in spades. And the young girl soon found herself in a losing battle as the knot around her neck began to come loose. With all this commotion going on, combined with the fact that her target would soon be upon her, she found herself at a loss for solutions. So she did the only thing she could think of doing.

"Somebody, help!"

* * *

Jaune Arc had a very boring life.

Not that he had any problem with that, mind you. Boring was normal and most importantly, safe. He had a good job at the local pet shop, a solid group of friends that he had known since childhood, and a few nice hobbies like sewing and cooking, thanks to his friend Ren. He questioned the idea of taking up sewing, but being able to make and repair your own clothing was actually quite the money saver, which allowed him to afford his apartment at Haven.

But there was always the thought in the back of his head that maybe he wanted a little excitement in his life. And today was another day where such thoughts buzzed in his head like a swarm of angry bees. It probably didn't help that he had just gotten off work, stopping by the local grocery store on his way home as he always did. Hazel was happy to see him as always, despite the stone face that the old man wore almost constantly. And now he was slowly making his way back to his apartment, a blue plastic bag firmly gripped in his hand. On the same exact route, at the same exact time. Just like every other day of the week.

It was a monotonous grind that he had hated for so long now, but he always reaffirmed himself that boring is better than being poor or unlucky. Still, he at least had tomorrow to look forward to. He had finally given in to his closest friend Pyrrha, and her constant begging for him to join her at the tennis court on their day off. Even as kids, she was always extremely athletic. And she had always wanted him to join in on her activities, but his nerves always got the better of him. Physical activity meant the possibility of being hurt, after all. But now he was a grown man, for the most part, and those kinds of silly thoughts were something that he tried to avoid. And besides, if he was with Pyrrha anything could be fun.

His gaze drifted towards the looming presence of his complex, the giant green letters that spelled out Haven being a sight of comfort. Soon he'd be able to kick back and relax for the rest of the day. Maybe he'd order out tonight and spoil himself before the inevitable aches and pains of tennis tomorrow-

"HELP!"

He turned to look at the sidewalk across from him, coincidentally in the very direction he was going, to see the weirdest sight he had probably ever seen. A girl with short black hair, a black corset and skirt combo with red trim was hanging from the branches of a tree while the small, scruffy stray corgi that he was familiar with barked up at her with a ferocity he had never seen before. Which was strange, because the mutt was usually so friendly. But that might just be because he often fed the dog the day old pet treats he would sneak away from work.

"Somebody get this thing away from me!" The girl cried out again, her arm and legs tightening around the branch she clung to. Strangely though, her other arm was wrapped firmly around her head, as if to shield it from falling debris or something similar.

Snapping back to reality, Jaune quickly looked both ways before sprinting across the street, stopping in front of the chaotic scene. Almost immediately, the corgi stopped its barking and turned to him, ferocious barks of fury turning into excited and friendly yips. "Hey buddy." Jaune spoke to the dog, crouching down just enough so he could pet him. "I've never seen you get to aggressive. Why are you terrorizing this poor lady?" The dog responded to his question by flopping onto its stomach, an answer that Jaune had fully expected. "Here." Jaune quickly pulled out the dog cookie he had in his pocket and shoved it in the small pups mouth, causing it to roll to its feet and bound away happily. With the threat safely handled, he glanced up into the tree and noticed that the girl had firmly shut her eyes, tears already beginning to form under her eyelids. "Uh, h-hey! It's alright!" He called up to her. "The dog's gone now, I chased it off!"

"Huh?" The girls eyes snapped open, revealing that they were a shining, silvery color. "I-it's safe now? You're sure?"

"Positive." He responded with a smile.

"...You're certain?"

"...Yeah, I'm certain."

She stared at him in silence for a moment. "Positively certain?"

For a moment, Jaune felt his brow furrowing. But he quickly buried any annoyance, so he wouldn't be rude to the person he just saved. "Yes, I'm one-hundred percent, positively certain that the dog is gone. You can come down now."

The girl in the tree blinked a few times before loosening her grip on the branch. Strangely though, her arms immediately went to cover up her neck again as she positioned herself to get down. With a thud, she landed on her feet. It was only now that he noticed the black combat boots combined with brown stockings that lead up to her skirt. She certainly had... interesting taste when it came to fashion, that was for sure. But as his eyes drifted back towards the girls face, he found a more interesting sight to behold.

The girl had a jagged scar that ran all the way around her neck, as if she had been hung from a noose made from barbed wire. He couldn't help but stare at it, in all its disturbing glory. Something that quickly got the attention of it's owner as she covered her neck and backed away from him.

"I-I'm sorry." He quickly apologized. "I didn't mean to stare, that was really rude of me."

"Yeah... It was." The girl sniffled in return. "I don't like people seeing my neck. It's why I usually have my... my..." The girl interrupted herself by breaking down into a panicked state as she began to frantically search for something. "MY CLOAK! Oh no, where did it go? That's my cloak! My mom... she... she..." The tears were once again forming under her eyes as she continued to dart around the immediate vicinity.

Seeing a girl break down and cry was something that Jaune Arc couldn't stand. "It's uh, it's okay! I'll help you look for it!" He assured her as he placed his bag of groceries on the floor and began to scan the area.

"Wh-whuh?" The girl sniffled. "Why would you help me? I don't have anything to offer you in return."

"What?" Why did he need to be offered something for helping her? "You don't have to give me anything, I'm more than happy to help you out."

The girl stood there in a strange stupor, staring at him as he continued to search diligently for her lost item. He could have sworn that he heard her mumble about "Humans being different then she was told," but he was probably just hearing things.

As he continued to search, all while being watched by this weird girl, he finally managed to see a slimmer of red fabric sticking out from underneath a nearby bush. With a short "Aha!" and a firm tug, he managed to get the cloak out from underneath the shrubbery that had trapped it. With a few good shakes, he managed to get all the noticeable dirt and leafage off of it before he tuned back to the girl. "I think I found it!" He stated proudly as he presented the item to her. "Is this it?"

The look on the girls face was nothing less than glowing as she snatched the cloak out of his hands and practically shoved her face into the fabric. "Yes! Oh I thought I lost it forever! Thank you so so much!" But as she began to wrap the cloak tightly around her neck once more, her facial expression seemed to darken. "But... why would you help me?"

"Huh?" Jaune scratched his head. Why wouldn't he help her? "I mean, that's what people do. They help each other."

"But... that's not what I was told..." The girl mumbled to herself.

"Well, I don't know what you were told, but it sounds bogus. People help each other all the time. It's what makes the world a better place to live in, after all!" His mouth formed into a big grin, one that his friend Nora referred to as the "Big Dumb Grin." But he couldn't help it, he tried to be as positive as possible, and a big smile added to that effect.

"...Really?" The girl seemed to shrink into her cloak further, something that made Jaune a bit uncomfortable.

He quickly cleared his throat and changed the subject. "Well, now that we got that settled, my name is Jaune." He held a hand out. "Jaune Arc."

The girl didn't react at first, and the fact that her eyes had suddenly gone wide and were now practically burrowing into his soul made her seem a bit more unsettling. It didn't help that she also had a completely blank face while staring at him. "Ruby." She finally whispered out, her facial expression still not shifting at all.

"Oh. Well, nice to meet you, Ruby." He smiled as he retracted his hand. "Are you from around here?"

"No."

"O-oh. So you must be from the suburbs on the other side of town then?"

"No."

"Uuuh..." He gulped nervously. What kind of conversation was this turning out to be? "A-are you here on vacation or visiting someone, then?"

"No."

Alright, now was the time to abandon ship while he still had the chance. "I-I see. Well uh, I really need to get home and put these groceries away." He began to slowly step around her, and the girl slowly turned to follow him in the most stiff and lifeless manner possible. "You uh, you watch out for those stray pups, alright?" There was no response from the girl as he continued to walk away. With a final wave and a smile he turned and began the fasted power walk he had ever done across the street and into the courtyard of his complex. And even when he was within the safety of its fencing, long out of sight of the strange girl, he could still feel her eyes drilling into him. It was a terrifying sensation.

But he had at least done his good deed for the day, and no matter how weird she may have been, she still thanked him properly.

* * *

Jaune let out a sigh as he practically tumbled into his apartment. The kitchen was his first stop, mostly because it was where the front door also was. Most people would think that is a horrible place for a kitchen, and they'd be right. The whole reason that he had been able to afford this apartment is because of the fact that the kitchen had been built in the wrong spot, which made the place much cheaper for reasons that he really couldn't understand. And quite frankly, he couldn't care less. The more money he saved, the better. And having the kitchen at the front door was actually a really nice luxury, he could just walk in and immediately start putting the groceries away while he still had some steam left!

And after he had done just that, he exited the kitchen and moved to his next stop, the dining room. Or at least, that's what he called it. In reality, it was just a wooden table with four chairs set up in the corner of the living room that was closest to the kitchen. He stopped in front of the table and dug into his pockets before crudely tossing his wallet and keys onto its wooden surface. With a rather loud yawn, he turned his attention to his couch and began making his way towards it.

"Hello Jaune!"

He froze up halfway there, his entire body slowly spinning towards the hallway that lead to both his first bedroom and bathroom. There, standing quietly, was the same black haired girl that he had rescued from the tree, her hand held up and waving to him while her face sported a small and shy smile.

"AAAAAAAAAAGH!"

Needless to say, she wasn't expecting the horrifying shriek that he let out. "What's wrong, Jaune?! Are you hurt!?" She shouted as she ran up to him, causing the blonde to hop backwards in terror.

"What's wrong?! You're in my house! That's what's wrong!" He shouted as his hands dove into his left pocket, pulling out his cellphone. "How did you even get in here before me?!"

"Oh. That's easy!" Ruby laughed as she waved a hand. "Locks, Doors and Gates can't keep me out. They just open for me if I get near them!"

Jaune simply stared at her for a few seconds before bringing the phone up to his face. "I'm calling the cops."

"W-wait, no! Don't do that!" Ruby shouted as her hand darted out and snatched the phone from his hand. "Hey! Give it back!" He shouted as he reached out and tried to take his stolen property back. But she proved to be too agile for him, hopping further away from him before tossing the phone towards the other side of the room. "I just wanted to talk to you more! Honest!" Ruby explained as she stood between him and his phone. "I was really rude to you earlier, and I wanted to make up for it!"

"So you BROKE INTO MY HOUSE?!" This girl was completely insane! There was no way he would even consider trying to talk to her in any kind of civilized manner!

"I didn't know that was a bad thing to do, I'm sorry!" She apologized as her eyes began to tear up once again. "It's just that, I didn't expect any hu- people to be so nice to me! I just wanted to get to know you a little more, honest!"

Jaune slapped a hand over half of his face, tying to shield himself from the sight of a crying cute girl. He couldn't refuse any woman, no matter how insane they might be, if they cried. It was how Nora roped him into all her crazy schemes. "I... Okay! Fine!"

Ruby's tears dried almost instantly. "Really?" She watched as he slowly and reluctantly nodded. With a squeal of joy, Ruby hopped into the air and clapped her hands. "Yay!"

"But only for an hour! And then you're gone, or else I'm seriously calling the cops!"

"Aaw..."

The two of them stood silent for a good few moments, neither one of them wanting to take their eyes off of the other. And even though he really didn't want to be doing this in the first place, Jaune knew that they were just wasting that one hour Ruby had been given. With a heavy sigh, he pointed to the couch behind her. "Why don't we sit down. You can sit on the couch and I'll sit on the recliner, alright?"

"That sounds like a plan!" Ruby stated cheerfully as she turned towards the couch. But that was when she noticed something. Something that made her hairs stand on end. The table in front of the couch, which had a clear glass surface, was held up by a metal frame underneath. But there was something inside the frame that shimmered and sparkled, something that triggered a reaction from her that she had never experienced before.

And with a horrifying wail that rivaled Jaune's earlier shrieking, Ruby stumbled backwards into him, sending them both tumbling to the carpeted floor.

Jaune landed flat on his back, the sudden outburst from the girl completely convincing him that she was some sort of psychopath. "What's wrong?!" He questioned as he began to sit up. "Why are you screaming and tackling... me..." His voice slowly began to drop off until it was a mere whimper. There he sat on the floor, staring down at the most disturbing and terrifying sight he had ever seen.

The headless corpse of the girl he had met not even twenty minutes ago, lying on its back.

Jaune could feel his stomach attempting to throw up whatever food he had eaten that day as he stared into the empty, pink hole that went down where the girl's head used to be. He could feel the blood draining from his face as he tried to comprehend what he was seeing just now. He felt like he might completely pass out, and he reached down towards the floor to stabilize himself.

That was when his hand came to rest upon something. Something hairy.

"I-It's okay, Jaune! I'm still here, see!" He heard the voice of Ruby call out to him. Was he going insane? His hand firmly gripped the object that he had placed it upon earlier, resulting in a disgruntled protest. "Hey! Stop pulling my hair!"

He blinked a few times before his gaze drifted down to his right hand.

Which was now resting on top of the decapitated head of the girl that followed him home.

The head looked back up at him, a thin shade of pink covering both of its cheeks as it nervously smiled back up at him.

"Ehehe... Hi, Jaune. I guess you can say my head isn't entirely screwed on right."

And for the third time that evening, a scream filled the complex's hallways.

* * *

 **Author's Notes**

"What's this? A SUPERNATURAL LANCASTER STORY?! Does this guy ever think of anything original? I mean come on, this is like his third Jaunefic-"

But don't touch that dial, reader! This ain't no Jaunefic! This is a RUBYFIC!

That's right, Jaune may be part of the ship, but the real star here is our soul-calling irish fairy, Ruby Rose!

I know a lot of people wanted me to do a lancaster fic for a long time, and I really just didn't have any ideas that interested me. But now that I've finally come up with one that I feel is interesting, I'm glad to bring you all Head Over Heels, a story where Ruby is a Dullahan who has become smitten with a completely normal and average human, Jaune Arc.

Since I'm releasing the first chapter early, don't expect a new one to come with Werewolf Among Us next week, but DO expect it to come the two weeks after that.  
Think of this first chapter as a sneak peak into what I have in store for you all.

So buckle your pants readers, because Jaune's life is going to be anything but normal now! And Ruby will have so much more to worry about than her new human friend calling the police on her!


	2. Headless, not Homeless

Most people would probably have passed out at the sight of a headless corpse lying in front of them.

And if that didn't do it, then the headless corpses talking head that was sitting right next to them should have certainly done the trick. Neither of those worked for Jaune, however, as he continued to stare at the head next to him in sheer terror, his body unable to comprehend the notions of passing out or moving in any capacity.

"See, Jaune?" The head questioned as it turned to look at him. "I'm okay! Nothing to worry about!"

While he certainly wasn't freaking out anymore, his body language was telling her that he didn't entirely believe her. But that was alright, she had other ways of proving that she was okay. And the simplest and most effective one outside of talking to him? Well, getting up of course! So she quickly pushed herself up off the ground and stood back up to her full height.

This had the opposite effect she was going for.

Jaune let out another screech before he flopped backwards like a fish thrown onto dry land, and his arms began to quickly work towards dragging his body further away from her own. Why was he acting so crazy? She had already shown him that she was perfectly fine. Her body walked up to her head and quickly snatched her up off of the floor, and with a slightly moist sounding plop, she was put back together again. Although it did take a few twists and turns of her head to make sure that it was firmly in place.

"Ta-daaa!" Ruby sang as she jazzed her hands. "All patched up!"

"Wh-wha..." Jaune's stuttering at least clued her in on the fact that he was still able to speak. Hopefully that meant he was feeling better now that she was together again. "WHAT ARE YOU?!"

That wasn't the response she was hoping for. "Huh? What do you mean 'what am I' I'm Ruby!"

"Your H-HEAD CAME OFF!" Jaune nearly knocked over a chair as he continued to crawl backwards. "And it was talking! And your body got up! And... and... am I going to die?!"

"Pfff!" She blew a raspberry as she waved a hand at him. "You're not going to die, silly!" Or at least, not anymore he wasn't. "And to answer your first question, I'm a Reaper class Fae entity! A Dullahan!" She continued to watch as Jaune crawled away from her and stared at her like a deer caught in the headlights, his mouth agape and his eyes wide.

"A what?"

She tilted her head. "You don't know what a Dullahan is?" She watched as his head slowly jittered from side to side, which made her assume that he was shaking his head. "A Dullahan is a type of fairy!"

Jaune finally stopped his escape attempt and pondered her words for a moment. Since when did fairies lose their heads?! "You're not a fairy, those are supposed to be tiny and have insect wings!" He explained as he propped himself up slightly with his arms.

"Oh, I'm not THAT kind of a fairy. Those kind are really mean. I've met one before, she loved playing pranks on humans, especially this one really mean guy in a suit. And she wasn't tiny, just really, really REALLY short."

"Okay." Jaune deadpanned in response. That didn't really answer any of the questions he had at all, but at this point he didn't really care. "So can you please leave now?"

Ruby's eyes widened at that. "What? ...Leave?" She watched as he nodded a few times nervously. "B-bu-but... THAT'S NOT FAIR!" Her sudden shout startled him even more as he fell onto his back again. "You said we had an HOUR! It hasn't even been fifteen minutes!"

"T-th-that was before your HEAD FELL OFF!" He shouted back, beginning his escape strategy of crawling away once again. "I don't want you to curse me or murder me or something like that, so please just go! I don't have anything that you would want!"

"But I want to talk to you!" She stamped her foot hard on the ground, causing him to yelp. But after a few seconds, she could feel her eyes beginning to moisten with tears. With a sniffle, she began to rub at them. Maybe her family was right after all, and she had been mistaken. "I-I thought Arcs never went back on their word though..." She mumbled to herself as she remembered that small little detail in his file. Strangely enough, she noticed that things in the house went oddly silent outside of her sniffling.

"What did you just say?"

She removed her hands from her face and looked down at Jaune, the previously terrified young man now staring at her with a serious face that looked as if it were made of stone. "I-I said I thought that Arcs never went back on their word..."

"How do you know about that?" He demanded, his serious tone catching her off guard. "I've never told anybody that before, only my closest friends know that."

"O-oh yeah?" Ruby's sniffles began to die down a little as a sneaky idea made it's way into her head. "I would be more than happy to tell you everything you want to know if you would just sit down and talk with me like you promised!"

Jaune bit his lower lip for a moment and swallowed both his pride and a bit of saliva. Whatever this thing was, it couldn't be all bad if it wasn't just attacking him out of the gate. And she somehow knew his family motto, despite the fact that he'd never told anyone outside of Pyrrha, Nora and Ren. His curiosity would probably be the death of him, but at this point in time his mind was telling him not to care. "Okay."

"Yay!" Ruby hopped in place and clapped her hands together before hopping over to him. With strength that surprised Jaune, she took his arms and quickly pulled him up onto his feet. She had even gone a little overboard with her pulling, causing him to nearly fall forward into her.

What exactly Jaune was getting himself into, he had no idea. But the based on what she had said, his curiosity had been piqued to a dangerous degree. Anyone who knew of his family was something that was interesting to him, especially given the fact that he had never seen or heard of this girl in his entire life. And his family was a very social one, much to his chagrin, especially during the many family events that they had held in their old neighborhood. So how exactly did she know so much about him? "So since the couch is out, why don't we just sit at the table this time?"

"Okay!" Ruby bolted to the chair at one end of the table and immediately plopped down into it. Her hands folded over themselves on the tables surface as she seemed to jitter in her seat from excitement. It was certainly unnerving to see a person so excited to talk with him. And he was using the term "person" very loosely.

* * *

The two of them sat quietly at the table for a moment so Jaune could get his bearings. Of course, he would most likely never fully get them, so his best bet was to plunge into this conversation as soon as possible so he could get her out of his house faster. "Alright, so I guess let's talk about you first." He noticed the enthusiastic nodding that came from Ruby. "What exactly are you and why are you here?"

"I already told you, I'm a Dullahan!"

Jaune sighed before rubbing his face in frustration. "I don't know what that is though."

Ruby rolled her eyes. "I told you that too. I'm a Reaper class Fae entity." The deadpan look of questioning from Jaune informed her that she would need to further elaborate. "Jeez, humans aren't very smart, are they?" She briefly mumbled to herself before she continued on. "A Fae entity, or Fairy, can mean a lot of different things. There are fairies that are like what you said, small, wings and are magic. But there are a lot of other kinds of Fae that make explaining what they are complicated."

"Uh. Okay then... Why don't we just start with you first then?"

"Okay! I'm a Dullahan, a type of Fae that serves as a soul collector!" She failed to notice Jaune's face paling up again. "Our job consists of getting an assigned person, going to the location of where they're destined to die, and call out their name so that their soul will leave their body. Then we take it and guide it to the afterlife." Jaune bolted up out of his chair, something that startled her immensely. "What's wrong?!"

Despite the fact that it would most likely provide him with no real support, Jaune had instinctively picked up his chair and held it between himself and her. "Are- are you here to KILL ME?!"

"What? No! No, of course not!" Ruby coughed into her hand and turned her head away. "At least, not anymore..."

"NOT ANYMORE?! That implies that you WERE GOING TO!"

Ruby crossed her arms over her chest and began to pout. "Well I didn't! And I'm not going to anymore! Isn't that what matters more?"

"But you were still going to!"

"That's because it's my JOB! You weren't even going to know you were dead until I already had your soul!"

"Is that supposed to make me feel BETTER?!"

Ruby opened her mouth to respond but paused. He had a point there, she supposed that it wouldn't make anyone feel better to know that they were meant to be dead right now. "I guess you're right." She shrank down in her seat and began to idly twiddle her thumbs. "I'm sorry."

Jaune let out a groan as he slapped an open palm over his face. He couldn't really blame her for just doing her job, all things considered. Death was a natural occurrence, and anyone having to manage that on a daily basis sounded like a horrible job to have, even if you ignored the fact that you were essentially killing people. "I guess I can't really be mad. I am still alive." He paused for a moment. Why WAS he still alive if it was her job to kill him? "So why didn't you take my soul?"

"A-aah... Well..." Ruby slouched further down her chair, she was now almost completely off of it by this point. Something that made Jaune wonder if her head would stay on due to the awkward angle that it was now at. "Well uh... You helped me by saving me from that vicious beast-"

"It was a corgi."

"The vicious beast." Ruby reaffirmed. "And you found my cloak, and even returned it to me."

Jaune hummed as he put a hand on his chin. "...Not that I'm trying to look a gift horse in the mouth or anything, but those are things that any kind person would do. Do such simple things really warrant being spared from death itself?"

"Um... Well, no. But..." Ruby let out a small whine as she felt her head coming loose, to which she responded with a firm pat on the top with both her arms as she pulled herself back up into her chair. "I was told that humans don't do things like that. And well, I wanted to know why you did."

Jaune hummed again as he sat back down in his own chair. He did remember this girl mentioning something about being told differently on how humans were apparently supposed to act. "Who told you something like that?"

"Uh well, my family." She scratched at her cheek nervously for a moment before something donned on her. "Oh! And my friend, Weiss! And I think that she would know a lot about humans, since she used to be one!" Ruby blinked a few times before an important thought popped into her head. _I don't think she would like you very much though, Jaune..._

"Hmm... Maybe your family, and your friend, just all had some really bad experiences with a human. And then they just decided that all humans were the same." It was something that was certainly plausible, anyway. After all, humans were guilty of such actions as well.

"I..." Ruby stared down at the table, her eyes clouded with thought. "I never thought of that before. Maybe that's why we're not supposed to interact with humans anymore..."

"I wouldn't put it past us." Jaune shrugged as he spoke. "But what I'm gathering from this is that you think I'm a special case, right?" Ruby responded with a firm nod, her face suddenly shifting into a more serious tone. "Well," He continued, "I can assure you that I am not a special case. I'm like, as far from being special as possible. I'm really boring."

"Oh, I know that!"

Jaune felt his shoulders slump. "Well gee, I'm glad you already know that..." She sounded so chipper while saying it too... "Well, that's a good segway into the topic that I wanted to talk about. Why do you know so much about me?"

"Oh, that? That's an easy one!" Ruby proceeded to procure a beige folder from her cloak before promptly tossing it on the table. "All reaper class entities get a short summary on their targets!"

Jaune carefully picked up the folder and opened it up, revealing two sheets of paper inside. One was a photo of him from both the front and back, and the other was a very short summary on him as a person. The details in the document really did provide a shockingly accurate summary of his life, but there was one specific thing that he noticed at the top where his general info was placed. "Family Motto: An Arc never goes back on his/her word." It was something that provided the real proof that she was something not human. Not only did most of the Arc family do away with that motto, even when they used it they rarely spoke it aloud for others to hear. It was more of a self-imposed golden rule. One that was eventually broken.

With a "hmph," Jaune placed the papers back into the folder and carelessly tossed it back onto the table in front of Ruby. She happily slid the documents back to her before making it vanish back into the folds of her cloak once more. With a single glance at the clock that he had hanging on the wall above the table, he determined that Ruby's time was up. It was getting late too, and soon it would be dark. "Well, it looks like our time is up."

Ruby's face slowly sank into a frown. "Oh... Are you sure?"

"Yeah, sorry." He watched as the girl slowly pulled herself out of his chair and stood in front of him. "A uh... A deals a deal. But I want to say thanks for sparing my life today. I don't think I can properly describe how much that means to me."

Ruby smiled ever so slightly as she gazed up into his eyes. "Oh, no problem!" And her smile fell once more. "But uh... um... This is kind of hard for me to ask but..." She fidgeted in place for a few moments, something that made Jaune raise an eyebrow in suspicion. "Can I stay here for a little while longer?" She softly whispered, something that Jaune didn't catch.

"Huh? What did you say?"

"I said... can I please stay with you for a little while longer?" Her whisper was still just as audible as the last.

"Ruby, you have to speak-"

"CAN I STAY WITH YOU PLEASE?" She practically shouted before slapping a hand over her mouth with a small "meep" of embarrassment.

Jaune stared at her blankly for a few moments before a hand went to the back of his neck. "Uh. Wow, um... How do I say this... uh..." There really was no easy way of denying this girl who was supposedly death incarnate, was there? Maybe he was destined to die today after all. "No."

Both of Ruby's arms dropped down to her sides as her eyes began to let loose the water works. "Oh no. No no, don't do that." Jaune's objections however, failed to staunch the flow of tears that burst forth from the girl. _Stay strong, Jaune._ He thought to himself, _You will NOT be persuaded by tears! She's some kind of headless DEATH FAIRY. She HAS to go!_

"Puh-PLEEEAAASSSEEE!" Ruby's sobbing bounced from one of Jaune's ears to the other, his defenses slowly crumbling. "I don't- I don't- I don't have anywhere else to GO! Just for one night, I swear! And then I'll really be gone for good!"

"C'mon, can't you just like, go back to the spirit world or something?" Jaune whined back, hoping that she had some way of getting home.

"I'm not strong enough with my magic for something like that! And the nearest approved gateway back into the spirit world is on the other side of the city!" Ruby paused for a moment and let out a gasp. "What if that beast comes back? I can't, I WON'T walk across this city alone again and risk that!"

"Agh..." That was it. He couldn't take it any more. "FINE!"

Ruby's sobbing stopped almost immediately. "F-fine?"

Jaune lowered his head, dejected and defeated, as he pointed towards the second hallway that branched off from the living room. "Down that hall, the room on the right is the guest bedroom. And straight ahead from that is the guest bathroom."

"Re-really?" The shimmer of hope in Ruby's eyes was nearly a blinding light to him.

"Really." He sighed. "Just... please don't kill me in my sleep or something... And tomorrow I'll take you back to this 'gateway' so you don't have to walk alone."

"Yay!" Ruby hopped over to the boy and gave him a rather forceful hug. She either ignored or didn't feel his struggles to escape her grasp as she cheerfully picked him up off of the ground. "You're the best human ever, Jaune! I promise that you'll be my best friend forever, I'll never leave you!"

"Wh-what did you just say?" Jaune managed to choke the question out in between gasps.

"Oh. Um..." She let go of him, nearly sending him tumbling to the ground. "I said that I'll remember today forever, the memories won't leave." Without another word she spun around and skipped hastily towards her room- the guest bedroom, before turning around and offering a final thanks before shutting the door behind her.

As she turned and glanced around at the empty room, save for a closet, a dresser and a bed, she pumped her fist. She felt a little bad about using her tears as a weapon against such a nice person, but there was so much more of this world that she wanted to see, and with no human currency or contacts it would be hard to do so under normal circumstances.

With a content sigh, Ruby flopped onto the bed that she would call hers for the forseeable future. She did still feel a little bad about using Jaune like this, but she DID already do him the biggest favor she possibly could by sparing his life. Not that she would dangle that over his head as if it made her immune to any objections he would have, she would just have to work a little extra to convince him to let her stay as a long-term resident. _If Yang found out I was staying with a boy she would..._

Ruby paused her thoughts for a moment to take in what she was only just now realizing. Her family wouldn't be very happy when they found out that she essentially ditched her job to live in the human world for awhile. A job that her mother had worked hard to make sure she had gotten. In fact, Ruby was pretty sure that her family would be out for her blood when they found out about this. Well, maybe not her blood, but she would definitely be receiving a harsh punishment.

She frowned a little for a moment, but her frown turned into a steeled look of determination. It was HER family that had lied to her all these years about humans and the real world. And now that she was in a position to learn the truth about it, she wasn't going to pass it up for anything. They would just have to deal with the fact that she wasn't going to be coming home for awhile, whether they wanted to or not. They would just have to accept that she wanted to befriend humans and learn more about them.

And if they tried to stop her and bring her home? Well, she wouldn't let them. Because she knew that if that happened, she would never be allowed into the mortal realm ever again. And that was something that she didn't want happening.

But she might not even get that far if Jaune didn't allow her to stay. He was the priority right now, and getting on his good side would probably be her best bet. But the best part about that bet was that she was already intending on doing that in the first place, so that just made everything easier! So long as Jaune was around, she would hopefully have a roof over her head. And she would be able to stay in the mortal realm until she was satisfied.

But that was all for another day, and after all the excitement from this one, she was quite tired. With a small yawn, Ruby struggled to get off of her bed so she could turn the light off. Once she had accomplished the nearly impossible feat, she kicked her boots off, threw the covers up and dove back into the warmth of the bed.

And with a content sigh, she fell asleep.

* * *

Jaune woke up in a panicked sweat.

His eyes groggily gazed around the room, and the gears in his head began to turn at a rapid pace. _Was that all just some kind of fever dream?_ He thought to himself as he pulled his body out of bed. There was only one real way of finding out, so he quietly opened his door and snuck out into the hallway.

When he approached the door to the guest room, his hand slowly wrapped around the handle and began to turn. With a small and quiet creak, the door slowly opened and revealed a completely empty room with the bed neatly made. That was good evidence that everything that had happened yesterday was a dream, but it wasn't concrete yet. So Jaune steeled himself as he turned towards the guest bathroom, revealing that the door was wide open and the room was dark.

Jaune let out a massive sigh in relief. _So it really was just a dream after all. Thank god._ It would be quite the dream to tell Pyrrha when she came by, that was for sure. But for now, his thoughts shifted to a more important matter. The matter that was his stomach being empty. He was so hungry that he was pretty sure he didn't even eat dinner last night before he went to bed, so a big breakfast this morning would surely help him. So without further delay, he practically rushed into the kitchen and began to sift through his cabinets for something to eat. There, he found mostly cereal and a few bananas. But he distinctly remembered buying some pancake mix yesterday, so he could probably-

"Good morning, Jaune!"

"AAAAGH!" Jaune nearly did a backflip as he shrieked in terror, turning to see the same person he had dreamed about standing in the small arch that separated the kitchen from the dining room. "IT WASN'T A DREAM?!"

"Of course not, silly!" Ruby giggled as she waved off his terrified outburst. "I'm as real as they get!"

"I... uh...ri-right. Of course. Sorry."

"No problem, Jaune! Is there any food though, I'm pretty hungry."

Jaune felt his eyebrow raise slightly. "You can eat?"

"Well, duh! I have a mouth, don't I?" To emphasize this, Ruby opened her mouth with a loud "aah" and pointed to it. "So, I can eat! And I'm hungry!"

 _Great. Now she's going to leech food off of me too. Oh well, stay strong, Jaune. It's only for today._ His thoughts were interrupted by the growling of both his stomach and hers. "Alright, uh, I think I've got some cereal here in the cabinet. Are you okay with Pumpkin Pete?"

"Pumpkin Pete? I LOVE that cereal!" Ruby cheered as she hopped into the kitchen... And promptly started to slide all around. "Wo-woaah! What's wrong with the floor?!" She cried as she fought to keep her balance. But her legs continued to slip and slide as if she were walking on ice.

Jaune glanced down at the girls legs and noticed that she had taken off her boots, revealing her stocking-clad feet. "Oh. That's because you've got stockings on, but you really shouldn't be sliding around that mu-" He was cut short when Ruby crashed into him, her body having fully lost it's balance.

Without even thinking, Jaune threw his arms around her small frame and hugged her tightly to his own chest in order to make sure she didn't tumble to the floor. It took the two of them to realize what had happened, and almost as soon as they did their eyes locked. Both parties could feel their cheeks heating up as they continued to stare at each other, with neither one of them wanting to make a move or say anything at all.

At least, not until Ruby felt her head come loose from all the excitement.

With a yelp, she watched as the world around her spun rapidly as she braced herself for a cold and hard impact against the floor. But instead, she felt Jaune's hand latch onto her neck, while his fingers went into a rather uncomfortable position down, or up in this case, her throat.

Jaune's reflexes had been fast enough to catch the tumbling head of his house guest, something that was purely instinctual from years of catching products as they fell off the store shelves. But almost immediately upon grabbing the Dullahan's head, his fingers found themselves in a rather soft, warm and wet situation. He blinked a few times before glancing down at the head he was now touching and noticed that half his hand was inside the gigantic hole in her neck. And his face turned a rather ugly shade of green as he felt his empty stomach churn.

Ruby responded with a loud cough. "Ja-Jaune, please don't stick your fingers in there, it feels really weird!" She glanced up at the blondes face and noticed that the shade of green had turned into an even deeper shade that resembled the colors of the leaves on the trees outside. And upon seeing that he made no motions to actually reattach her head to her body, she finally made the move to push off of his chest and grab her own head from out of his hands. With another squish, she made sure her head was properly affixed to her neck this time before blushing fiercely. "Thank you for catching me, Jaune. Uh, both times."

"Don't... mention it." Jaune managed to croak out before he stumbled into the dining room and slammed against the table. "I... I uh I'm gunna go the bathroom for a bit just wait here." He mumbled rapidly as he sprinted to his bathroom and slammed the door shut, leaving Ruby alone in the dining room.

With a disgruntled pout, Ruby plopped down onto one of the chairs and began to tug at her stockings. "Stupid kitchen floor. Making me slip like I'm on ice..." She began to rant as she finally pulled both of her legs free of the stockings that she loved so much before tossing said fabric to the ground. With another pout, she folded her arms and simply sat in the chair, patiently. At least, until her stomach began to growl once more. Ruby leaned forward and glanced into the hall, noting that Jaune was taking a particularly long time in the bathroom. _I'm sure he's okay with me just getting the cereal myself._ She concluded as she pushed herself up from the table and walked back into the kitchen.

"Ah!" Ruby yelped as soon as her bare foot touched the kitchen tile. "Cold cold cold!" She shouted as she hopped over to the kitchen cabinets and threw them open. Grabbing the box of cereal quickly, she threw open the other cabinets and quickly fished out a bowl and a spoon before dashing back over to the table. "Jeez..." Ruby mumbled to herself aloud. "That floor is as cold as Weiss's entire house! Why would you even enchant a floor with ice magic like that?!"

Ruby soon shrugged the thought off as her stomach demanded attention once again. She quickly poured her cereal into the bowl and dug her spoon into it before realizing that she had made the mistake of forgetting the milk. But she wasn't going back into that kitchen without SOME kind of protective footwear on, so she decided to bite the bullet for once and eat the cereal dry. And it was still just as delicious as it always was!

Once she was finished, Ruby let out a content sigh as she began to put her stockings back onto her feet. She would need them if she wanted to put the box back and put the dishes in the sink, where dirt dishes belonged. But just as she finished putting her footwear back on, she heard a noise that startled her.

There was a knock at Jaune's front door.

Ruby sat there quietly for a few moments, staring at the door that created the offending noise. She observed it for a few more seconds before the knocking came once again, this time louder than before.

The knocking at the door made her a little anxious for some reason. But she couldn't just let whoever it was stand outside all day. So with a small bounce, she hopped to her feet and quickly made her way towards the door. She nearly slipped on the tiled floor of the kitchen again as she ran, something that she would have to rectify eventually. Perhaps she could find a pair of slippers some time later today. But in the meantime, she was able to stabilize herself by grabbing onto the doorknob. And without thinking any further, she flung open the front door.

"Hi! How can I help you today?" She greeted cheerfully, only to pause briefly when she noticed that she was staring into a bronze colored tank top. She blinked a few times before glancing upwards, her eyes meeting two emerald green pools that shimmered with confusion as they glanced back down at her. She noticed that the girl in front of her had fiery red hair that was tied back into a pony tail, which was almost as long as the she was tall! "Oh, your hair is pretty!" Ruby bumbled out as she smiled brightly. The tall redhead seemed confused by her compliment, or perhaps maybe it was the fact that she might have been expecting Jaune?

"I, um... thank you?" The redhead backed a way a step before glancing up over Ruby's head. "Uh, is a man named Jaune in by any chance?"

"Jaune? Yep! He's in the bathroom right now! Are you here to see him too?" Ruby paused for a brief moment, putting a finger up to her chin. "Who are you, anyway?"

"Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't even introduce myself. My name is Pyrrha." The redhead smile and held out a hand, and as Ruby grabbed it and shook, the two of them couldn't help but notice the sizeable difference in their appendages. Pyrrha's hands were even bigger than Jaune's! "And you are?"

"My name is Ruby! Ruby Rose!"

"RUBY!" Jaune's shout came from behind her, causing her to spin around so quickly that her head nearly came loose. "What are you-" He paused for a moment when he glanced over Ruby's head. "Pyrrha!" He shouted before slapping his hands on either side of his head in horror. "Our tennis day!"

"Yes, that's why I'm here." The redhead chuckled as she held up her racket. "You said that this complex had a court, right?"

"Uh yeah, it does." Jaune gulped nervously as his eyes drifted between Ruby's smiling face and Pyrrha's. "But first let's come in and talk!"

Pyrrha's smile seemed to strain itself a little as she glanced down at Ruby. "Yes, I'd imagine that you have quite a bit to talk to me about." The smaller girl named Ruby quickly moved out of her way and allowed her to enter.

 _Maybe today is the day that I was actually supposed to die..._ Was the thought that drifted through Jaune's head as he began to run through a number of different ways to explain this situation to his friend.

* * *

 **Author's Notes**

I have a brief announcement about my future scheduling.  
I'll be trying out a new one! Yay!

My current schedule is one that follows a two week downtown in-between chapters. And generally, I upload two chapters at the end of those two weeks, one for this fic, and one for Werewolf Among Us.  
However, with this new schedule I'm still keeping the two week downtime between each fics chapter, but instead of releasing them both on the same day every two weeks, instead they will alternate week to week.

As an example, this week is Head over Heels, whereas next week is Werewolf Among Us, then the week after is Head Over Heels and so on and so on.

With this new schedule, I hope to maintain the same time frame that I have while also giving my readers something to read each week instead of just making you all wait the full two weeks.

While I'm not certain I will keep this schedule permanently, I am fairly confident in trying to do so and hope that you will bear with me as I do! Thank you!


	3. Beheaded Bonding

Ruby couldn't help but notice that this new girl, Pyrrha, was practically an amazon.

She was almost a head taller than Jaune! And she even found herself gazing into the girls shirt instead of her face when she had answered the door. Although Pyrrha was far from being the tallest person that she had personally ever met, she was still taller than everyone in her family! Not only that, but she seemed like she was a really nice person, just like Jaune.

Ruby found herself wanting to know more about her.

"So, Jaune..." Pyrrha began as she inched closer to him, making sure to stand between the two. "When did you meet Ruby?"

"Uh..." Jaune began to wonder why it was suddenly so hot in his house. "Th- uh, she's my... um... Pen Pal! Yeah! Remember? We had to write to one in school for our summer project?"

"If I recall correctly, your "pen pal" sent you a package with a dead rat in it." Pyrrha's expression seemed to harden into something that was half-glare and half-smile, as if she wanted to keep up her appearance while still being angry.

"Y-yeah, but uh, this is a different pen pal... She's uh, she's the one I got after that first one... she's from... PATCH! Yeah, Patch."

Pyrrha's anger seemed to dissipate some as her face eased up. "Patch? That's quite a long way from here. Isn't that just off of the coast of Sanus?"

"Yep!" Ruby interjected herself into the conversation, "It's a really nice island!" How Jaune knew she had been living there before they left for the "other" side, she had no idea. Nor did she know what a "Pen Pal" was, but from the sound of it, he regarded her as a friend already.

All things that she had been hoping for.

"It's mostly forest with a few little towns scattered around. It's really peaceful and quiet!"

"And what made you want to leave such a nice place to visit Jaune?"

Jaune didn't feel the need to interject this time, since it seemed as if Ruby had gotten the hints he was trying to drop. Namely the hints that said "Don't tell anyone that you're some kind of supernatural death fairy."

"Well, I never got the chance to see what the human world was really like!"

Maybe she hadn't picked up the hints after all.

Jaune nearly passed out until the sound of Pyrrha's giggling brought him out of his stupor. It was a surprise to see his friend take such a statement lightly, but then again who would actually believe another human being if they said such a thing?

"Well, I've never heard someone say they wanted to see the world so... colorfully before!" Pyrrha's smile seemed to glow a little as she continued, "And our city is certainly a varied one. I don't think there's a boring place around in this town."

"Yeah. Right. Colorful." Jaune quickly pushed his way passed Pyrrha and grabbed Ruby's arm. "Excuse us for a second, Pyrrha. We need to talk about something." Without even giving either party a chance to argue, he quickly dragged his house "guest" into the bedroom that she had now started occupying.

"What's wrong, Jaune?" Ruby questioned as Jaune closed the door. "Did I say something bad?"

Jaune sighed and placed a hand on his forehead. "Ruby... You can't tell people that you're a Dullahan, or whatever..."

Ruby tilted her head a little. She didn't have any plans to do that in the first place, since she highly doubted it would ever come up in conversation. That, and the fact that she didn't want a repeat of what happened with Jaune. "I wasn't going to?"

"That's... good?" Jaune didn't really seem to believe her as he sighed. "But you can't just say you're not a human and act like that's normal."

"Oh. Okay then, Jaune." She had a bit of an idea why that would be a bad thing to do, but it was difficult to catch herself saying such things. It isn't as if she came from a place where being something other than human was considered abnormal, after all.

Jaune blinked a few times in response. He honestly hadn't been expecting the conversation to be as easy as it seemed to be going. "Uh, alright then, thanks." The two stood there for a few more seconds before he coughed into his hand. "Th-that was everything. Guess we'd better go now."

As the two of them made their way back into the living room, they found Pyrrha looming over the small glass table situated in front of the couch. In fact, she was so enraptured with the object that was on the table that she jumped a little when she heard them re-enter the room.

"Oh yeah!" Jaune announced as he made his way over to the table. "I forgot to tell you, Pyrrha, this is your necklace. You left it here last week." He picked up the jewelry and held it up for all to see, a red jewel attached to a beautiful golden chain.

And as Ruby stared at the object, her breathing began to pick up. Her heart threatened to claw its way out of her chest as it began to beat faster and faster, and the overwhelming sense of terror that she had experienced the other night returned to her once again.

Both Jaune and Pyrrha nearly fell over at the resulting screech that Ruby let out as she planted herself firmly against the wall of the kitchen.

"Ruby! What's wrong?" Pyrrha asked as the two of them stepped closer, resulting in another scream.

"KEEP THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!" Ruby's shouts were accompanied by a mad flailing of her arms, almost as if she were trying to claw her way up the wall.

Both Jaune and Pyrrha shared an extremely confused glance before gazing down at the necklace that Pyrrha now held in her hands. Without even thinking, Pyrrha raised the object up and stared at it, curiously. "The necklace?"

Ruby responded by diving away from the two of them, falling onto the floor with a thud. Thankfully, she had kept a firm grip on her head, and it was still firmly on her shoulders.

"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha quickly stowed the necklace in her pocket. "I didn't mean to do that!"

"J-ju-just keep it away from me!" Ruby stuttered as she crawled backwards. "Go-gold is terrifying!"

Again, Jaune and Pyrrha shared a glance. "Gold?"

"Strange..." Pyrrha held a finger up to her chin. "I've never seen someone with an intense fear of Gold before..."

"Here, Ruby." Jaune offered his hand to the girl and began pulling her up. "Sorry about that, you never told me about your fear before."

"I-it's okay..." Ruby responded, noticing the strange look on Pyrrha's face as Jaune helped her up. Pyrrha looked... annoyed, and the fact that her hand brushed against the pocket that the necklace was in made Ruby a bit nervous. "A-nyway... Uh... What about this tennis thing you were talking about?"

"Oh shoot, that's right!" Jaune shouted as he turned to Pyrrha. "We need to get down to the courts!"

"Really? Why are we going there?" Ruby questioned as she dusted herself off. Her confusion only deepened when Jaune looked at her like he was equally lost.

And unbeknownst to her, Jaune had briefly experienced a flash of the future. A future where he saw Ruby's head tumble off of her shoulders as she dove for a ball. His face briefly turned pale at the thought of his premonition. "YOU CAN'T GO!"

Both Ruby and Pyrrha jumped at the shout, causing him to quickly regain his composure. "I-I mean, you can't go."

"But... why not?"

"Because, Ruby. You uh... you..." His brain strained to think of a good excuse as he eyed her up and down. And that was when it hit him. "YOU DON'T HAVE CLOTHES!" He winced a bit at his own shout.

"Clothes?" Ruby repeated as she looked down at her normal attire. "Isn't this good enough?"

"No! You'll uh... you'll get all sweaty and sticky in that! You'll totally hate tennis if you try and play in clothes like that!"

"Doesn't she have other clothes she could change into?" Pyrrha questioned. Surely a girl wouldn't travel to another continent with only one set of clothes?

Ruby was silent on the matter, staring blankly ahead as Jaune and Pyrrha spoke. She HAD forgotten her clothes. But then again, outside of pajamas and duplicates of her current outfit, she had nothing else to wear for any outdoor activities, anyway. "I have nothing else..."

Both Pyrrha and Jaune hummed at her answer, the two of them pondering on how to solve that issue. "Maybe we could take her clothes shopping after we're done?"

Jaune nodded in response to his friends answer. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. You've always had a great sense of fashion."

"Oh, I'm not THAT great, Jaune." Pyrrha seemed to wave the compliment off with a bit of a blush, though Jaune refused to let it go.

"Yeah, right. I used to have horrible fashion sense before you came along and straightened me out!"

"...You weren't that..." Pyrrha cleared her throat, not ready to engage in another conversation like this. "Anyway, we should really get going, right?" She held up her racket to add to the question.

"Right!" Jaune agreed as he quickly ran to his room and changed into a plain white shirt and blue shorts, while also grabbing his racket.

"We won't be gone for too long, Ruby." Jaune explained as all three of them went into the kitchen. "Just don't answer the door or the phone while I'm gone, not that anyone ever comes by or calls anyway."

"Are you sure, Jaune? I can take messages for you!" Ruby held up a notepad just to emphasize one of her many useful talents of note-taking.

"No, the answering machine can get it just fine." Jaune also neglected to mention the fact that he didn't want anyone knowing there was a girl answering the phone in his house. He didn't need people getting the wrong idea.

"Okay then, I won't answer the door or the phone!" Ruby gave off a salute, seemingly easing his stress.

"Thanks, Ruby." Jaune sighed as he quickly pushed Pyrrha out the door, shutting it behind the both of them.

And just like that, Ruby found herself alone.

* * *

And now Ruby found herself completely bored.

Ruby plopped down on the couch with a pout. She had really wanted to try her hand at some tennis, yet she had been completely shut down by Jaune and his logical reasoning, much to her dismay.

But as she sank deeper into the couches squishy embrace, she gazed at the glass table in front of her, a glass of water sitting on the coaster in the middle. At least now she felt somewhat at ease around it, thanks to the fact that the golden necklace was removed from the house. Just being around that object made her want to toss her cookies.

Gold in general was something that terrified her, and she had never gotten a clear explanation as to why. Her family had even taken her to a therapist, who waved off the fear as being something natural to all of her kind. But it wasn't like she could ask another Dullahan for more information, they were becoming a rare breed of Fae in this day and age due to the fact that actual Grim Reapers could perform their jobs twice as fast and twice as efficiently.

Not only that, Ruby herself wasn't even a naturally born Dullahan, which meant that there was nobody in her family that knew much about her species, either. Then again, it wasn't as if her becoming a Dullahan had been planned in any capacity.

" _It was like the most terrifying thing we'd ever seen in our life."_ Ruby remembered her sister's many retellings of the event on so many occasions, mostly just to embarrass her little sister.

" _Ruby was in that phase where she wanted to explore, so we would let her walk around the front yard when we were out doing yard work."_

Ruby loved their family's garden. It was a small one out in front of the house, but her father's green thumb transformed it into the most beautiful sight. Even her mother was gifted at growing plants, something that many found ironic given her status as a Grim Reaper.

" _So one day, me and our dad are working in the garden and our mom, Summer, was doing some training exercises out front too, mostly just practicing her scythe techniques and stuff like that."_ Yang would always begin to lose her composure as she got to what she deemed was "the good part."

" _And little Ruby here wanted to go see her mommy, so she hopped up to her feet and waddled over to her while nobody was paying attention. And the next thing we hear is the sound of a scythe slicing through flesh and bone like butter!"_

Ruby remembered the bewildered laugh that Weiss let out when she first heard the story. And it made Ruby miss her friend just a little bit more. She briefly pondered how she was doing before her memories continued to play back.

" _Mom let out the most terrifying shriek we'd ever heard. I think she even killed a few birds that were in the trees with it. Me and Dad spun around so fast that even OUR heads were threatening to pop off! And what do we see? We see a headless Ruby standing in front of our mom while her head rolls around on the floor. Not only that, but Ruby is GIGGLING the whole time like it's some kind of fun new game!"_

Despite the fact that she had always been a reaper, once the head of a person is removed by a reapers scythe, it can never be permanently reattached to the owners body. And apparently, cutting off the head of a reaper is one of the few ways that you can transform them into an entirely different creature. Who knew?

Well, now she did. But she held no resentment towards her mother, after all it had been an accident. That, and she never really remembered it happening. She had just thought that she had been born like this and nothing more, so while the news had been jarring at first, it certainly didn't stop her from loving her family.

And now she was defying all expectations by staying in the human world, with a human boy no less. She wondered what everyone would say when they found out...

Ruby's thoughts all came to a crashing halt when the sound of a ringing phone filled the apartment.

She glanced over at the small podium at the left end of the couch, where a lamp and a phone sat together on the small piece of furniture. The phone rang again, and Ruby had to resist the urge to pick up the phone for a brief moment. She continued to let the phone ring, as she was told to, until the answering machine finally got it. There was a brief message from Jaune stating that he wasn't out, and that the caller should leave a message after the beep.

And shortly after the beep happened...

"...Hello, Jaune?"

Ruby immediately froze in her seat. The voice sounded feminine and mature, if not a bit nervous.

"It's... it's your mom... I know I haven't called you in awhile... And you haven't called us either, though I suppose I can't blame you..."

Ruby blinked a few times as she continued to listen to Jaune's mother speak, tilting her head curiously as she did so. Jaune hadn't called his family for some time? And they haven't called him? Why?

"There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of you, Jaune. I wish you would come home... I wish you COULD come home..."

And now Ruby was finding out that Jaune couldn't go home? What kind of family did he have?

"Your sisters talk about you a lot, wondering how you're doing. They uh, started a betting pool... Maybe I shouldn't have said that. And your father... well, he still... he still refuses to acknowledge that you exist. I- I'm working on it though, so don't worry!"

Ruby continued to listen to this older woman talk, the obviously one-sided conversation reminding her of her own mother. Now she had the urge to talk to them, more than ever before.

"Well... That's all, I suppose... Feel free to call me any time, Jaune. I- We still love you."

And with that, the woman on the other end hung up and the machine finished its recording.

Ruby sat in silence once again, and she found herself twiddling her thumbs idly in her lap. While the call certainly did not give off any good implications about her new roommate, Jaune, it had sparked a desire for her to call her own family and break the news to them about her situation. It would eventually be a whole day since she had left for her job and spoken to them, after all. So telling them sooner than later would be best, right?

But did she dare do such a thing by a mere phone call?

* * *

Throwing all caution to the wind, Ruby picked up the phone off of its handle and began to mash her home phone number into the number pad. She honestly had no idea how she was going to break it to her family that she was staying in the human world for the foreseeable future, but she was sure that she could just give them the puppy-dog act and be home free.

Each ring made Ruby increasingly anxious, and she was hoping that maybe everybody was out so she would just have to deal with the answering machine instead.

"Hello, Xiao Long and Rose residence," Unfortunately, that would not be the case. "You've got Yang!"

Ruby let out a small sigh of relief. Yang would totally be the best person to talk to first, she had tons of experience in the human world, after all. "Hey, Yang! It's Ruby."

There was a brief silence on the other end of the line before Yang's voice cut through it. "Ruby?! Oh my god, finally! I've been worried sick!"

"Huh?" Ruby had always known her sister was a bit protective, but she had never been worried over not seeing her for a day before. "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?!" Yang parroted back in annoyance. "You were supposed to be back last night! Is everything okay?"

"Yep!"

"...Was there a lot of traffic at the gateway near there or something? Or was it down for maintenance?"

"Nope! At least, not as far as I know, I haven't been to the gateway yet."

There was another pause. "What do you mean you haven't been to the gateway yet? That's how you're supposed to get home!"

"How are Mom and Dad?"

"How are Mom and..." Yang sounded exasperated as she stuttered through the phone. "Don't change the subject like that!"

Ruby's bottom lip began to quiver, despite the fact that nobody could see it. "Sorry, Yang." She made sure to sound extra sad. "I just missed them, that's all."

"Yeah, yeah..." Yang sighed. "Dad had to leave to go help Mom with work."

Dad helping Mom with work? That was unusual. "What happened?"

"Apparently the convention Mom is at is having a lot of infighting between a few political parties. The Dragon Clans have been overstepping their boundaries in the human world or something."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I heard some of them are even starting to work for humans disguised as maids now, crazy right? I mean, why would you want to live in the human world for any extended period of time?"

"Pffff... Haha yeah, right." Ruby laughed meekly. "It's... pretty gross here..." But at least now she had a possible idea of how to thank Jaune for letting her stay... Or maybe it could help convince him to do so?

"Anyway, Dad said that Mom's been really stressed since she's one of the assigned Peace Keepers. So he said he was going to keep her company and make sure she was alright." Yang chuckled. "Of course, that's usually code for 'I'm going to let Mom ride me like a-"

"YANG!" Ruby could feel her face heating up just from that part of the sentence alone. She didn't need to hear any more.

And Yang's laughter ringing out from the phone didn't help her embarrassment, either. "Ha, oh man! Sorry, Rubes. You know I can't resist. It's in my nature, after all!"

"So..." Ruby sighed as she regained her composure. "When will Mom and Dad be back?"

"Well, Dad made it sound like things were pretty bad. The event got extended by three weeks, and Mom's gotta stay for all of it."

"Three weeks, huh?" Ruby mumbled to herself. "That's good."

"Hm? Why is that good?"

Ruby slapped a hand over her mouth with a yelp, staying silent for the longest time.

"Ruby?"

"I... uh... I mean... um..."

"Ruuuby..." Yang's voice sounded apprehensive. She could smell her little sister hiding something from a mile away, or rather, a different plane of existence away, when she stuttered.

"Umm... It's just that... Well, I... was thinking..."

"Spit it out, Ruby!"

Ruby buckled under her sisters demanding attitude. "I WAS THINKING OF STAYING IN THE HUMAN WORLD FOR AWHILE!"

There was silence. Followed by even more silence. Ruby could almost feel the phone in her hand heating up, and it was beginning to make her sweat. "Y-Yang? He-hello?"

"What did you just say?" There was no emotion in Yang's voice, and that scared Ruby even more.

"I-I said that I was thinking of staying in the human-"

"Why?"

"Well, I mean... I was just... y'know..."

"Ruby."

"There was this nice person who saved me from a beast, okay?!" Ruby tried to lower her voice as the information spilled out of her mouth. "And Mom and Dad said that the human world was a terrible place! But Jaune's friend is really nice, and he says nice things about all the people around here! I think... I think Mom and Dad lied to us, Yang!"

There was silence again, but this time it was significantly shorter. "What."

"I think... Mom and Dad lied to us."

"Have you forgotten that I go out into the human world too? I know what it's like and it's-"

"I think you've been going to bad places, Yang. Jaune says-"

"Jaune." Yang interrupted, causing Ruby to wince at her usage of his name. "I've heard that name twice now. Who is that?"

"He's who I'm going to live with and-"

"HE?!" Yang was practically screamed the word into the phone as if it was heretical. "Ruby, you are coming home today or I will call up Mom and Dad and-"

"No!" It was Ruby's turn to shout now. "Yang, if you tell Mom and Dad about this, I'll... I'll... I'LL HATE YOU FOREVER!"

"Ruby. You've gone crazy! And you won't hate me forever, you'll get over it eventually!"

"YANG! I'll burn all the magazines under your bed!"

"Ruby, I swear-"

"I'll tell Weiss you tried to seduce me!"

"She knows I would never do-"

"I'll... I'll..." Ruby pondered for a moment before a light-bulb lit up inside her brain. "I'll mail your favorite pair of lingerie along with a love letter to that ogre, Cardin!"

There was a frustrated gasp on the other end of the line. "You... you're serious about this..."

"Yang... I'll be fine, I promise."

"No you won't." Yang affirmed. "Especially not if you're with a guy. He'll try to take advantage of you, Ruby!"

"Yang. I'm a death fairy." Ruby deadpanned as she rubbed the side of her head. "Do you really think that I can't handle some guy who's younger than me?"

"...Well, I mean, humans don't exactly live passed the age of one hundred, and you're only one hundred and eighteen. But what if he tries to?"

Ruby had to laugh, something that seemed to upset her sister. "Yang, if you actually saw what Jaune looked like, you wouldn't be saying that. Besides, he's super sweet, he'd never hurt a fly!"

"I don't care, Ruby. I won't let you make the same mistake that Mom and Dad did."

"Yang..." Ruby could tell that there was no talking Yang down at this point. There was really only one more thing to do. "Jaune is going to help me so I can stay and see what the human world is like, no matter what you, or dad, or even mom have to say about it."

"Ruby, you better be back here tonight or-"

"Yang, I'm sorry." Ruby muttered before she moved the phone away from her face, her thumb hovering over the end call button.

"Ruby, don't you dare hang-"

There was a beep as Ruby pressed the button, and then there was silence once more. She glanced around Jaune's apartment and sniffled. It was a painful thing to do, but there was no other way.

With a sad sigh, Ruby pushed herself off of the couch and trudged into Jaune's bathroom. As she flicked on the light and approached the sink, she stared at her own reflection in the mirror. She soon found herself lost within her own silver eyes, briefly wondering if her family would instead hate her forever for what she was doing now.

And somewhere, deep down inside of her, there was a very minuscule part that didn't care.

* * *

After her brief trip to the bathroom, Ruby slowly stalked out of the hall and towards the kitchen where she heard suddenly heard the sounds of Jaune sifting through the fridge.

"Hey Jaune, how was tenni-" She stopped in her tracks as she gazed into the kitchen.

There were two entirely new people that she had never seen before, a girl with orange, short hair that seemed to spike slightly as it ended, and a boy with long black hair tied up in a pony tail with a single pink streak at the front of his head.

All three parties simply stared at each other in silence, the orange haired girl having a slice of Jaune's ham hanging from her mouth.

Ruby was the first to break the silence as she held up a hand and pointed at the two individuals.

"BURGLARS!"

The ginger's head quickly began to dart every which way. "BURGLARS?! Where?"

"She means us, Nora." The boy sighed as he placed a hand on the ginger, now named Nora, shoulder.

"What? That's ridiculous! I don't steal anything from Jaune!" Nora quickly shoved the slice of ham in her mouth and ate it, swallowing what little credibility she had alongside it.

"And who are you, anyway?" Nora added as she quickly invaded Ruby's personal space. "Jaune never said anything about living with another girl before... You can't be one of his sisters, you're not blonde! ...And Jaune doesn't talk to them anymore, anyway..."

Ruby blinked a few times as Nora mindlessly chattered away. The ginger seemed friendly enough, and she spoke of Jaune like she knew him. So they couldn't be bad people, right? "I'm Ru-"

Nora gasped, interrupting Ruby's introduction. "Oh my god! Are you Jaune's GIRLFRIEND?! I KNEW he had it in him!"

"Girlfriend?!" Ruby coughed as she took a step back. "N-No! I'm just living with him, that's all!"

Nora quickly closed the distance and stared into Ruby's eyes, almost as if she were trying to deduce whether or not lies were being told. "Ooooh." Nora's smile soon returned as she backed away and grabbed the skinny boy who had been mostly silent. "So Jaune is just like us, Ren!"

"It appears that way." The boy now named Ren spoke as he was scooped up by Nora. "I never took him as one to bond with a stranger so quickly though."

He managed to pry himself from Nora's grasp long enough to properly introduce himself. "My name is Lie Ren, but you may call me Ren." He held his hand out for her to shake it...

...And it was promptly smacked away by Nora's body as she pushed herself between the two of them. "And my name's Nora Valkyrie!" Nora practically thrust her hand into Ruby's face. "Any friend of Jaune's is a friend of ours!"

"My name is Ruby, Ruby Rose!" Ruby took Nora's hand and nearly lost it in the resulting shake. Nora had a grip that rivaled some of the stronger supernatural denizens of the other side. "How do you two know Jaune?"

"Oh, me and Ren met him and Pyrrha a long time ago! We played at the same playground one time!"

"Nora pushed him off of the swing set, claiming he was hogging it." Ren added.

"We all became instant friends!"

"Pyrrha pushed Nora onto the ground after Jaune started crying, and Nora pushed back. Then they both started fighting." Ren added once again. "...Then we became friends." He finished with a small smile.

"Oh. So you've all known each other for a long time, huh?" Ruby would be lying if she didn't feel a little jealous. She never had many friends growing up, just her sister Yang and eventually Weiss.

"Yep! But there's always room for one more!" Nora declared as she wrapped an arm around Ruby, pulling her into a group hug with Ren.

And everyone froze as they heard the sound of keys jingling and a door opening.

Jaune opened the front door, revealing that Nora, Ruby and Ren were all huddled into a group hug in the archway between the kitchen and the dining room. And he could feel his eye twitching.

"Oh god no."

"Oh, oh! Hi Jauney!" Nora shouted as she broke from the hug and ran to him, giving him a much more bone-crushing type of hug. "And hi, Pyrrha!" She added when she realized that the redhead was standing behind the person she was hugging.

"Hello again, Nora. How are you today?" Pyrrha asked with a smile as the three of them began to file into Jaune's apartment.

"Just great! We made a new friend!"

"Yeah. A new friend who wasn't supposed to open the door!" Jaune growled as he walked in, earning a pout from Ruby.

"I didn't open the door!" Ruby assured as she let him walk by.

"Nora still has a key to your apartment." Ren stated, causing Jaune to sigh in frustration again.

"I thought you got rid of them all?"

"I missed one, apparently. Which means there are probably another ten hidden somewhere in our apartment."

"That's... wonderful..." Jaune sighed as he began walking to his room. "I guess that means you guys will be coming with us, then."

"Ooooh, field trip?" Nora questioned, though the only answer from Jaune was the sound of his door closing.

"Jaune and I were planning on taking Ruby clothes shopping today." Pyrrha answered for him. "She doesn't have any, and she'll probably be staying here for a day or so."

"...So she's NOT dating Jaune?" Nora failed to notice the blush from Ruby, and the exasperation on Pyrrha's face.

"No! I'm just staying with him for a couple weeks, that's all!" Ruby corrected.

"WHAT?!" Jaune's shout could be heard from his room as he burst out of it, now wearing a black shirt and blue jeans. "You're staying for HOW LONG?!"

Ruby stifled a very nervous giggle. "Uh... a couple weeks?"

"When did we agree on this?!"

"We uh... we didn't?" Ruby slowly began to shrink down as Jaune became more and more irate.

"Well, now that she's met Nora, she'll have to stay, won't she?" Pyrrha added, though she sounded just as enthusiastic about the situation as Jaune did.

"That's right! Nora hasn't had the chance to hang out with her yet!" Nora wrapped her arm around Ruby once again. "And you can't turn down BOTH of us!"

Jaune clapped a hand over his face. "Great."

"So, what's on the schedule for today, Jauney?" Nora asked as she flopped onto the couch, only moving her legs when Ren needed to sit down.

"Ruby needs new clothes, since she only brought what she's got on, so me and Pyrrha were going to take her down to that women's clothing store on Kuchinashi street."

"CLOTHES SHOPPING?!" Nora sat straight up as she yelled. "We're in." She declared with an overly enthusiastic grin.

"Um, I don't know about that..." Pyrrha rubbed the back of her neck as she spoke. She knew full well what her friend was like when it came to clothes shopping. "We didn't really plan on bankrupting Jaune today."

"I won't BANKRUPT Jaune! I've got Ren with me to keep me in line!"

Ren simply nodded in response.

"Besides, this is the PERFECT opportunity to get to know Ruby some more!" Nora stated as she hopped up from the couch and wrapped her arm around Ruby's shoulder once again. "Right, Ruby?"

Jaune could feel his forehead beginning to sweat again. _Please say no, PLEASE say no!_

"That sounds awesome, Nora!"

"Nooo..." Jaune weakly moaned as he cupped his face with both of his hands, not even reacting when Pyrrha placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Maybe things won't be as bad as we think they will?"

He had a feeling that she would be wrong.

* * *

Pyrrha had been wrong, just like he suspected. Completely and totally wrong.

Jaune stared at the pile of clothes that were situated in both Nora and Ruby's arms as they began to march towards the changing booths situated near the back of the store.

"Does she really need to look through that much clothing?" He muttered as he followed, Pyrrha and Ren both at his sides.

"Of course!" Nora's pile of clothing shook as she spoke. "We have to find the best match for her!"

"...Please tell me you didn't grab anything too expensive, Pyrrha..."

"Of course not, I only grabbed what was in your budget." Her assurance still didn't help as much as he thought it would.

"I also sifted through and removed anything that Nora added that went above budget." Ren added, which definitely helped Jaune's attitude.

Once the five of them had reached the changing booths, Nora violently kicked open the door to the one in the middle, not even bothering to check if it was empty or not. Thankfully for all of them, it was.

"Alright, Ruby! Ready to become a fashion model?"

"Uuh... No?"

"Too bad!" Nora stated as she tossed in her pile of clothing before grabbing Ruby and tossing her in along with them.

With a slam, the booth door closed both Nora and Ruby into their clothing prison.

Jaune felt his nerves working themselves up again as he turned to Pyrrha. "Is... is Ruby going to be okay?"

The nervous smile that she offered back did not help the situation any. "Define... okay?"

Despite the fact that the changing booth was cramped, Nora managed to fit the both of them into it just fine.

"Ooh, I want to try this on first!" She declared as she picked up a shirt and began to change, despite the fact that Ruby was still showing signs of embarrassment.

And her signs of embarrassment would only get stronger when Nora bumped into her on accident.

With a small "Eep" Ruby found herself slamming into the door of the booth, and the amount of force was just enough to cause her head to fall from her shoulders.

With one hard bounce, she found herself rolling out of the booth, something which would have made her sick if she wasn't so used to it by this point. But the bigger issue was the fact that this all happened in a public place!

As she gained her composure, she could still hear Nora happily rambling away from inside the booth, a sign that she had yet to actually turn around and see Ruby's headless body standing behind her. A body which was now frantically trying to grab its missing head.

The only problem was the fact that Ruby didn't know exactly how far she was from the booth, since her head was now facing away from it.

"Oh god..." Ruby heard the voice come from above her, causing her gaze to shift upwards. Thankfully, it turned out to be Jaune who was now looking down at her.

"Jaune!" Ruby nearly shouted in excitement, but she was able to contain it to a whisper. "Quick, pick me up and hand me back to my body!"

Jaune simply stared at her, his face turning a bit green. She didn't understand why he was acting so strange, he had already picked up her head and handed it back before. And she was about to question whether or not he was alright, until he finally made a move.

With a swift and rather hard tap, Ruby found her head rolling back under the changing booth once more. Instead of picking her head up, he essentially kicked it back in the direction it had rolled. It was a rather crude AND rude approach, but she was willing to let it slide for now.

Although her relief was cut short when she gazed up at a body that was neither hers, nor Nora's. Instead, it appeared that she had rolled into another persons booth, though fortunately the woman was preoccupied putting her clothes back on.

Ruby had to briefly think of her sister as she gazed up at this blonde haired woman in black lingerie. If Yang had seen her, Ruby could only imagine that she would rate this woman an eleven out of ten on her "Yang Scale." But either way, she didn't need to get caught with her head in the clouds, or in this case on the floor.

Thankfully, it seemed as if Ruby's body was close enough to reach under the inside of the booths and grab her head, swiftly dragging it back to their side. And with a quick plop, her head was firmly back on her shoulders with nobody being any the wiser.

"Okay!" Nora turned to see Ruby smiling eagerly. "Now it's your turn!"

Ruby did her best to showcase a big smile. "Uh... great!"

Hopefully she would be able to keep her head firmly attached.

"Ta-da!" Nora proudly presented Ruby as she walked out of the changing booth.

Ruby, meanwhile was feeling less proud and more embarrassed about being shown off.

"Huh..." Jaune looking her up and down wasn't helping either. "You look cute!" He added, causing her to blush even more.

Gazing down at the outfit she was now wearing, she would be lying if she said that she didn't like it. Though she had a nice red scarf, much like her sisters, covering her scar, it did not distract from the black tee shirt that she was wearing and the white, cartoony skull that was on it. Following that, she was now wearing a nice pair of skinny jeans instead of a skirt and stockings.

It was strange, but wearing something other than her standard corset-skirt combo actually felt nice for once. Plus, the added addition of Jaune calling her cute helped immensely, despite her now crimson face.

Pyrrha inspected her heavily for a moment before nodding. "I agree, though the scarf is a bit much don't you think?"

"It's for my neck." Ruby's hands immediately went for the scarf. "I have a really bad scar."

"Oh, I see." Pyrrha frowned. "I apologize."

"It's alright, you didn't-" Ruby was interrupted by Nora, who proceeded to pull the girl back into the booth for another round of fashion modeling.

The rest of the group felt bad for Ruby, due to Nora's love of disrespecting personal space, trying on new clothes was a nightmare when the ginger was involved.

But everyone's attention was garnered to the booth next to Ruby and Nora's as the door swung open and out stepped a familiar face.

The woman was a blonde, with her hair tied up in a tight bun. Her green eyes seemed to study and judge whatever they laid their sight upon, harshly. The glasses she wore certainly didn't take away from that effect, either. And the black business suit and skirt that she wore gave her the air of an extremely strict boss.

"Oh, h-hi Ms. Goodwitch." Jaune stuttered as he waved. He was all too familiar with the woman, being one of the board members of the complex he lived in and the very well known right hand of the landlord, the people knew very well not to cross her.

Her eyes snapped to him almost immediately, causing him to freeze with fear. Every time she looked at you, it definitely felt like she was judging your ever action, especially if you weren't doing anything at all.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Arc." Her eyes briefly shifted towards Pyrrha and Ren, the former stiffening up under her gaze. "Might I ask what you are doing in a women's clothing store?"

He couldn't help but gulp nervously. "Ju-just helping a friend shop for clothing!" He began to fidget under her gaze, which wouldn't leave him alone, and pray for some kind of salvation from it.

And his prayers would be answered when Nora flung open the booth door once again and shoved Ruby out, who was now in a new outfit.

"And next on our schedule is..." Nora paused when her eyes settled upon the new body in the room. "Oh, hi Glynda!" The ginger smiled and waved cheerfully.

"That is Ms. Goodwitch to you, Ms. Valkyrie." Glynda practically hissed as she turned to glance at Ruby. "And I don't believe I've seen you around this girl before, Mr. Arc."

Ruby squirmed a little as this new woman assaulted her with her gaze. A gaze that rivaled her own mothers, under the right circumstances. Ruby couldn't help but look down at her clothing and hope that it wasn't going to give off a bad impression.

This time she was wearing a dark grey jacket that stopped just before her mid-drift, the sleeves stopping just at her elbows. Underneath that was a dark red t-shirt that was much more open around the neck area, exposing the top of her chest to the world. She had spoken out against this, but Nora was adamant that she had enough to "show off," whatever that meant. She had also traded her skirt in for a dark red skirt that went a little below her knees.

"My name is Ruby Rose." She held out her hand, and to her surprise the woman took it and shook it without trying to take off her arm. "N-nice to meet you, Ms... Goodwitch."

Glynda nodded. "Likewise, Ms. Rose."

"Ruby and Jaune are roommates now!" Nora blurted out, causing both Ruby and Jaune to blush fiercely.

Glynda's eyes shifted over to Jaune before they narrowed. "I see. Then I suppose it may be best to warn you, Ms. Rose."

Ruby tilted her head. "Warn me? About what?"

Jaune opened his mouth to speak, but he quickly shut it when Glynda's gaze hardened.

"Mr. Arc is known for not respecting personal space." The venom in the older woman's voice was clear as day. "If anything happens between the two of you, please do not hesitate to inform me."

And with that, Glynda began to walk away from the group, the sounds of her heels clacking against the floor echoing out through the store.

"Jeez." Nora let out a huff. "You accidentally grope her one time and suddenly she treats you like a sex offender!"

"I did NOT grope her!" Jaune snapped back. "It was all an ACCIDENT!"

"Do I even want to know?" Ruby asked as she tightened the scarf around her neck.

Nora was about to open her mouth when Jaune spoke for her. "No. All you need to know is that it was Nora's fault."

"Now, now." Nora waved her hand in the air dismissively. "There's no need to throw blame around when we could be checking Ruby out instead!"

Ruby's blush returned as everyone's eyes fell upon her once more, and it deepened at the nods of approval.

"You really like red, huh Ruby?" Pyrrha mused as she continued to inspect the outfit.

"Well," Jaune glanced up at Ruby's head. "It matches her highlights."

"Highlights? These aren't highlights." Ruby was confused when everyone suddenly did a double take. "What?"

"You mean that's your natural hair color?" Ren's hand brushed over his pink strip as he spoke. "How?"

"I dunno." She shrugged in response. "My mom's hair is like this too, so I guess I got it from her."

"Interesting. I'd like to meet her one day, if possible." Ren muttered aloud.

"Uuh... Yeah, I dunno if that's a good idea..." Ruby mumbled as she shrunk back towards the booth.

"Renny is studying to be a hair stylist, so he probably took an interest." Nora added, causing Ren to fold his arms.

"I'm not studying yet, Nora. I still don't know if that's what I want to do."

"Ren can't decide between being a hair stylist or a chef." Pyrrha explained as the two of them bickered for a moment.

"He's really awesome at both!" Nora added before shoving Ruby back into the booth. "Anyway, time for another outfit!"

Ruby groaned out loud as the booth door trapped her once again.

* * *

A few hours later, Ruby and Jaune were back at his apartment for the night.

Ruby wiped her forehead as she examined her closet, now full of an array of different clothing for her to wear, along with her signature corset, skirt and cloak. It had cost Jaune a pretty penny too, but luckily for him, she had been given a decent amount of money to bring with her, as all Reaper's were.

Unfortunately, the shopping run also ate up those limited resources, and she wouldn't be getting any more.

"Hello, Jaune?"

Ruby found herself freezing up as she heard the sound of Jaune's mother speaking again. She listened in silence at the message that had played earlier that day, noting that Jaune also stayed silent long after the message had ended.

With a sigh, Ruby decided to peak out of her room and see how Jaune was doing. And from the looks of it, he wasn't doing as great. He was seated on the couch, and it looked like he was contemplating something deeply. No doubt he was either thinking about his mom, or thinking about the fact that Ruby practically forced her way into his life, with him having no say in the matter. Or both.

She hadn't really thought of it before, but now that both of them were alone, she was starting to feel a bit guilty.

With a soft plop, Ruby sat down on the couch next to Jaune while avoiding eye contact with him. There was an awkward silence for a moment before she finally worked up the nerves to speak.

"I'm sorry." She mumbled, causing him to turn his head.

"What?"

"I'm sorry..." She repeated. "For basically forcing myself into your home."

Jaune let out a sigh. "It's alright."

"No, it's not." Ruby mumbled as she tugged on her scarf. "You even spent your own money on me, and you've only known me for a day."

"You helped me pay." Despite the fact that Jaune was trying to make things better, his words were having the opposite effect. "I couldn't just let you run around with only one thing to wear."

"I don't have to stay with you."

Jaune tilted his head. "Oh?"

"There are places for people like me to stay all over the city. I bet I could find one."

"Yeah." Jaune turned his head to the television, gazing at the pitch black screen. "You probably could."

There was another few moments of awkward silence before Jaune sighed. "But, everybody already expects you to be here now. Can't just tell them that I kicked you out."

Now she was feeling even worse. "I could just tell them I wanted to move somewhere else."

"Yeah, you could." He scratched his chin. "They'd believe you." Then, he let out another heavy sigh. "But..."

Ruby felt her heart jump up into her throat at that word.

"Let me ask you this, where do YOU want to stay?"

Her eyes widened. Was he being serious? "Here, of course!" It was no contest, of course she would want to stay with him. He had been a great friend so far, and the rest of his friends were now hers as well, and they were equally as great!

"Yeah." Jaune smiled. "I thought so." His nose wrinkled a little as he sniffed. "You know, you and me are a lot alike."

"Huh?" Ruby tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"Well... You just want to see what the world is like, right?" He waited for her to nod before he continued. "That's what I wanted to do, too. But my parents wouldn't let me, either. But their reasoning is because... well, because I'm a failure. They thought there was no way that I could make it in the outside world on my own."

"But, you're not a failure!" She assured as she stretched her arms out. "Look at all this! You've got a great life!"

"Not really." He denied. "Sure, I'm living in a decent apartment, but what your files on me said was right. My life is boring." He rubbed his nose a little before continuing. "But, I'd rather have a boring life then live one that was forced on me."

"What?"

"It's a long story." Jaune glanced over to her, noting the interest she had taken. "But if you want, I can tell you."

Ruby smiled and nodded. "Please do!"

Jaune chuckled as he reached over to the side of a couch, pulling out a magazine before tossing it onto the glass table in front of them. Ruby leaned over and noticed that the cover featured an article on a corporation known as "Arc Farms."

"That is my family company." Jaune pointed to the cover. "It's an agricultural company, we sell mostly grown foods though. Y'know, vegetables, fruits, all that stuff. Mostly a family run business, too. It's not a huge corporation, but it's very well known here on Anima."

"So if you're part of this company, how come you don't live in a nicer place?"

"I'm not part of the company, not anymore." Jaune tossed the magazine back to its place on the side of the couch. "Back when I was little, the company used me and two of my sisters for advertising. We were like the company mascots."

Ruby giggled at the thought of a young Jaune being plastered on signs everywhere.

"That was actually how I met Pyrrha. When we were both four, we did a cover together. She was a sports prodigy from the moment she could walk, and she had already landed a deal with some cereal company called Pumpkin Pete's."

"...Isn't that the cereal you have in your kitchen?" She remembered how good it was, too.

"Yeah, it's pretty good cereal. Anyway, after that the two of us became friends for life. But as the two of us grew older, Pyrrha decided she didn't want to be a big superstar, so she did what I thought was impossible. She decided to just, not do that."

Ruby scratched her head. "Uh, why is that such a big deal?" It was completely natural for people to not want to have careers like that, and even she was basically tossing her own career out the window.

"That's the thing, I wasn't ALLOWED to do anything else with my life. I didn't get good grades in school and I didn't have any natural talent outside of being a awkward goofball who looked good enough for the camera. Not only that, but my family wouldn't let me try and pursue any other careers, even if I showed a sliver of skill at them."

Ruby glanced down at her lap and let out a sigh alongside Jaune. Even her parents had let her choose her own career, no matter how stupid it could have possibly been.

"One day, I just kind of had enough. I told my family that I was going to find my own path."

"And how did they take it?" She already had the feeling that she knew the answer.

"My dad told me I could go wherever I wanted, but if I did I shouldn't come back." Jaune blew a raspberry as he leaned back into the couch, letting his body sink into it. "Mom looked like she wanted to argue with my dad, but instead she just let him yell at me. And my sisters were no help, either. They just berated me and called me stupid for wanting to leave."

"So..." She began to put two and two together. "You just packed everything up and moved here?"

"Yeah, sort of." Jaune glanced up at the ceiling for a moment before reaching over to the side of the couch again, this time procuring a picture from the podium. "I took all my savings that weren't under lock and key, clothes and I just left. Pyrrha and her family let me stay with them until I had a job and I could afford a place of my own." He smiled at the picture of him, Pyrrha, Nora and Ren before setting it back on the podium.

"And here I am. Boring ol' Jaune Arc."

Ruby's eyes narrowed as she glanced at the television, her brow furrowing at the thought of a family rejecting one of its own. "I don't think you're boring, Jaune. I think you're brave."

His smile got just a little bit bigger. "Thanks, Ruby."

The two of them sat there in silence once more, before Ruby spoke up. "I'll find a way to repay you, Jaune. For all this."

"You don't-"

"I want to. I'll do SOMETHING." Her mind drifted to the conversation that she had with her sister earlier that day. "How about I become your maid?"

Jaune's face reddened at the thought of Ruby in a maid outfit. "Uh. No. I can clean up after myself, but thanks." He quickly pushed himself up off the couch and began walking back to his room. "If you really want to help, maybe you can get a job somewhere and we can split the bills?"

Ruby nodded. "Sure!"

"Great!" Jaune couldn't help but think how strange the past few days had been. "You know, it's weird but... I really like this."

"You do?"

"Yeah, I mean, aside from the fact that you're not a human and your head can detach from your body, I really like you, Ruby."

That made her blush, causing her to hide her head with her scarf. "Really? I like you too, Jaune. You're a really nice guy!"

"Maybe it's just because we're a lot a like, but I guess that doesn't matter." He added before rubbing his chin. "It might take some time to get used to having a roommate again, but I hope that I can help you find what you're looking for here in the human world."

"Aaw, Jaune, you've already helped me find some of what I was looking for!" Ruby stated as she hopped up and latched onto him.

"Re-really?" He stammered and blushed as he glanced down at Ruby as she hung off of him. For a moment, his vision became a little hazy, and his head swirled. Perhaps he wasn't used to a girl being this clingy with him? "And what's that?"

Ruby giggled as she let go of him. "Friends, silly!" She took a few steps backwards, heading towards her hallway before adding something else into her answer. "I never really had any friends back home aside from my sister and Weiss. But on my first real day in the human world, I made four new friends! So thanks, Jaune!"

And with that, Ruby disappeared into her bedroom.

"Huh..." Jaune yawned as he retired to his bedroom as well. "Never thought I'd be friends with a Dullahan... Or find out that they even existed." As he lied down in his bed, a thought crossed his mind.

He still didn't really know exactly WHAT a Dullahan was. But he could solve that problem all on his own with the power of the internet! With scroll in hand, Jaune spent the rest of his night browsing through articles that described Dullahan's and many other creatures of the supernatural world.

Ruby, on the other hand, spent her night marveling at a strange yellow glob of slightly transparent goo that seemingly danced in her hands. And from that yellow goo, she could see so many things about Jaune that even he didn't know himself.

Even things that he hadn't even done yet.

"Only thirty minutes into the future..." Ruby mumbled to herself as she pet the now animate glob. "But it's enough."

She felt a little bad about fragmenting even the tiniest part of his soul, but it would be necessary if she wanted to pay him back for all his kindness. After all, the soul was a powerful thing that recorded everything about a person.

And with this soul fragment, she could see into Jaune's future like any other full time Reaper would be able to, even if it was just thirty minutes. Any more of his soul and she risked damaging him, which is something she wouldn't allow.

"I'll watch over you, Jaune." Ruby stated as she suddenly pulled her head off with one hand and dropped the yellow goo into her head. For a brief moment, her eyes flashed yellow, and then the blob was gone. "No matter what happens, nothing will hurt you while I'm around, I swear."

And with that declaration, Ruby pulled the blanket over herself and drifted off into a peaceful slumber.

* * *

 **Author's Notes**

So you get a long chapter this week, lucky you guys!

Honestly, this chapter was meant to be split into two parts as an introductory arc, but I decided that I didn't really feel like having to split it in two, so I just wrote it as a single super long chapter instead!

Honestly, this chapter went through a lot of iterations on its own, and there were quite a few scenarios that were going to happen that I just didn't like or couldn't think of interesting dialogue for. But now I've found one that I was quite happy with, and it also lets me get to the meat and potatoes of things just a little bit quicker.

So enjoy!


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